USA > Indiana > Adams County > Standard history of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana : An authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume I > Part 28
USA > Indiana > Wells County > Standard history of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana : An authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume I > Part 28
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
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residence was in Rock Creek Township on land which subsequently became the MeAfee farm. As Mr. Barton was six feet three inches tall (long), it is said that in order to get the full benefit of the shelter he kept his body inside the trunk of the tree and inserted his feet,
BOWEN HALE
which were "left over," in the hollow of a protruding root. He moved to Allen County in 1839 and died in that part of the state.
BOWEN HALE, PIONEER BENEDICT AND MERCHANT
Few of the older generation of Wells County pioneers retained the confidence and affection of all classes as long or as firmly as Bowen Hale. He was a Kentuckian, born in Mason County, July 4, 1801. His grandfather was an Englishman and a slaveholder, who freed his chattels after they had cleared his Maryland plantation and partially transformed the tract into a family homestead. John Hale, his father, was born in that state, but moved to Ohio while Bowen was an
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infant, served in the War of 1912 from that state, and in 1837 located in Whitley County, Indiana, where he died at the age of seventy-three. The youth of Bowen Hale was passed on his father's farm in Greene County, Ohio, near the old town of Bellbrook. He assisted his father both in his tannery and on his farm. In that neighborhood, also he attended school in a backwoods cabin and even taught a few months himself. His mother having died when he was quite young the boy remained with his father until he reached his majority, when he left home and learned the chair-making business, which he followed for several years, working in Dayton, Xenia and Cincinnati. During this period he took a trip South, going down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in a steamboat. In the state of Mississippi he followed house-painting, having become skilled in that trade while painting chairs in the shop.
STARTS TRADING POST NEAR MURRAY
After his return from this trip Mr. Hale engaged in the mercantile business in Bellbrook, Ohio, until 1834, when he sold his interest in the store, and came to Wells County in 1835, his physician having advised him to go West for his health, telling him that unless he did so he could not hope to live very long. ' Consequently, he started into the woods to seek a home. He came down the Wabash River, and being charmed with the fertile lands along the Wabash, he stopped near the Town of Murray and resolved to make this his home. His father three years later passed by these lands and settled on the higher and more broken lands in Whitley County. Here Mr. Hale entered forty acres of land, hired a man to build him a cabin, and started to Cincinnati for a stock of goods, having resolved to start a post to trade with the Indians and the few white inhabitants in the county, there being only about twelve white families within the limits of Wells. On his re- turn, in the spring of 1836, he found that his cabin had not been built ; but he went to work, and with the assistance of Henry Miller and others, soon had a comfortable cabin, suitable for store-room and living-room. His enstomers were mostly Indians, who were peaceable, yet like most men, red or white, were dangerous when filled with fire- water. His stock of goods consisting of brass rings, whiskey and such articles of clothing as the Indians usually wore, were converted into pelts, there being but little money in the country. These pelts were conveyed usually on Henry Miller's wagon to Dayton, Ohio, or Cincinnati, and there sold. As a matter of course, he left nothing be- hind in his cabin, as the Indians ransacked that as soon as he was gone. The trip to Dayton and Cincinnati usually took about three weeks or longer.
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NOT A MIGHTY HUNTER
Although Mr. Hale had made his home in this wild country, and in common with all that hardy race of pioneers, the first settlers of Wells County, had many narrow escapes from wild animals and wild men, yet he was strictly a man of peace, and never was a hunter, and tells with considerable satisfaction that he never killed but one deer in his life, and that he stood in the door of his cabin and shot. Seeing the deer quietly grazing in front of his door, an Indian who was present picked up his gun to shoot it, when Mr. Hale asked him to let him shoot, and he took his gun and shot, killing the deer. He often said he had all the hunting he wanted in keeping the turkeys, squirrels and other animals out of his corn fields.
Mr. Hale was first married in 1837 to Miss Sarah James, a native of Virginia, who died in two years and three months after her marriage, without children. His was the first marriage of a resident of Wells County. At the time there was no justice of the peace accessible and he therefore took his bride to Fort Wayne to have the knot legally tied. In the year 1840 he married Miss Mary Ann Deam, of Mont- gomery County, Ohio, a daughter of Adam Deam, probably from Vir- ginia, who afterward removed to Wells County and settled near Mur- ray and built the first grist mill at that place. Adam Deam had four sons-Abraham, William, John and James P .- William and James P. each served as treasurer of Wells County; and four daughters, Rachel, Mary Ann, Harriet and Ann. Mrs. Hale died in the year 1872, leaving Mr. Hale again a widower. They had eight children, seven of whom survive-John D., clerk of Adams County; Hon. Silas W., of Geneva, Adams County ; James P., of Bluffton, deceased; Lewis B., deceased, residing on the old homestead; Emerillas, wife of A. R. Vanemon ; Jane, the wife of Daniel Markley, and Mary, living at home with her father. At the organization of Wells County in 1837, Bowen Hale was elected to the offices of auditor, clerk and recorder, or rather these three offices were then combined in one. He continued to hold these three offices until 1841, when an auditor was elected and he was relieved of the duties of that office. Ten years later Wilson M. Bulger was elected recorder, leaving Mr. Hale with the office of clerk, which he continued to hold until 1855, making a total of twenty years in the clerk's office alone, his time having expired by the limit of the consti- tution, and although urged to accept it again he declined to do so. He also for a short time during this period held the office of postmaster, he being the first postmaster in the county. In the year 1858 he was elected to the office of magistrate and filled the office for three years.
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Again, in the year 1865. he was elected, against his wishes, to the office of county commissioner. Being indisposed at the time, he was not even aware that he was a candidate until the day of his elec- tion. Thus is his history the history of Wells County; coming into publie life before the organization of the county, for twenty-six years he was a servant of the people of Wells County, and her interest was his interest, and to say that he did his work well is wholly unnecessary. The people have said as much by their ballots. Never were the
MODERN CLEARING OF THE FORESTS
affairs of any county better or more honestly administered. IIis records are neat, legible, perfectly formed, accurate and complete and excite the admiration of the most skilled attorneys.
A BLUFFTON MERCHANT
When he removed from his farm near Murray Mr. Bowen brought his dry goods store with him and continued in that business for a short time, his store being a log cabin on Market Street, the town being then in the woods with heavy timber and thick underbrush in all the
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streets. Hon. John Studabaker became his rival in business, his store being also on Market Street, and they cleared the brush out of the street so that they might be able to see from their boarding-house a square away, to their respective places of business.
LOST A GOOD LAWYER BUT POOR SPELLER
Mr. Hale tells, among many instances of his early pioneer life, of a young limb of the law who landed in Bluffton with the avowed inten- tion of practicing his chosen profession. He sought Mr. Hale and asked permission to make the clerk's office his law office for a short time, which request was granted, and the young lawyer sat down to work. Concluding it would be well to advertise his business, he wrote his card on a sheet of paper and posted the same on a tree standing at the crossing of Main and Market streets. When Mr. Hale went to supper he walked up and read it, and after the young lawyer's name, in large letters, were the words "Eterney at Law." Mr. Hale in- formed the young man of his mistake, who immediately tore down the advertisement and left town; he located in an adjoining county, and now bears the honorable title of "Judge." Thus, by a mistake in spelling, the town lost a lawyer, judge and citizen.
Mr. Hale was always a democrat, his first vote for president being cast for Andrew Jackson. He never was, however, much of a politi- cian, according to the usual application of that term, and never elec- tioneered for himself; it is said that he once started out for that pur- pose, but was so disgusted with the business that after going a few miles in the country he turned his horse toward home and never tried it again. When the Civil war broke out, two of Mr. Hale's sons en- listed, and at the Battle of Missionary Ridge John D. was shot through the body, and lay in the hospital at Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mr. Hale, even then an old man, went to Chattanooga and brought him home. In 1858 Mr. Hale retired with his family to his farm, where he passed his last years at a venerable age. In his earlier life he became a member of the Universalist Church, and was for many years a trustee of that church at Bluffton, and was to the end a believer in the doc- trines as taught by Ballou, Chapin and others. He also joined the Masonic Lodge at Bluffton, was for many years a member of Bluffton Lodge, No. 145, and, to the last, maintained the high standard of their tenets.
THE HARVEYS
Robert and James Harvey were among the real pioneers of the county, and settled at what became the site of the village of Murray,
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in Lancaster Township. The former, who was born near Knoxville, Tennessee, located in 1832, and died ten years later after he had made a home for his wife and family. Mrs. Harvey afterward married David Aker, and lived for many years on the old Harvey homestead. In the autumn of 1833 he followed the Indian trails to section 19, Lan- caster Township, and threw up a rude log cabin without doors or windows in which he lived the following winter. Ile brought his family with him. In the spring they were able to raise a few vege- tables, but life was a fierce struggle for several years.
HENRY MILLER
For many years previous to his death in Lancaster June 25, 1882, Henry Miller held the undisputed title of "oldest settler of Wells County." On the 10th of November, 1832, he made his home near where Murray now stands, having been preceded only by Dr. Joseph Knox and the Norcrosses. There he purchased the land on which he lived almost fifty years. Mrs. Miller died in 1887, the mother of ten children. Henry Miller was among the best known of the old settlers. Although he never became wealthy, he was hospitable and generous, and was a steadfast patron of churches, schools, roads, bridges, and everything else which could make the community a better and more comfortable locality in which to live and bring up families to be good Americans.
PIONEER EVENTS
The first white child born in what is now Wells County was Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Miller. She was born in 1835, married Jacob R. Harvey and, for many years, lived at Murray.
Before county organization, while Wells was still attached polit- ically to Allen County, ten or twelve votes were cast by the citizens of the region (in 1836).
The first wedding in Wells County was that of Robert Simison to Miss Rebecca Davis, in February, 1837, at the residence of James HIarvey. It was solemnized by 'Squire Hood, of Fort Wayne, as at that time there was no minister or justice of the peace any nearer who could tie the knot. Mr. and Mrs. Simison celebrated their golden wedding at Buena Vista.
The first mill was built at Murray in 1837 by Jesse Gerhart. Through many alterations and remodelings it continued to be operated
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for many years. It is said that Michael Miller brought the first barrel of flour into the county in that year.
The first school in the county was taught by Jesse B. MeGrew in 1837. It was located on the farm of Adam Miller up the river from Bluffton.
Thus, in a fashion, has the historical ground been cleared which covers the eight years of pioneer settlement in Wells County before its citizens organized a government of their own.
GREATEST DRAWBACK TO SETTLEMENT
The first settlers within the present limits of Wells County thus located along the Wabash River, in Lancaster, Harrison and Rock Creek townships. Rock Creek, the principal tributary of the Wabash, runs between the parent stream and the Salamonie River. All their tributaries had their origin in the many swails, or "slashes," as they were called in the local dialect of the country, and the water supply, in the early times, was purely of a surface character. Before thorough drainage changed the condition of the lowlands along the Wabash and its tributaries, they were covered with water during the thaws of winter and the freshets of spring. Later, the surface waters were heated by the summer suns, evaporation followed and the final result was a steaming country covered with a putrid mass of vegetable and animal matter. Then arose the marsh miasma and vitiated air hov- ered over all the land; the impartial sapping of the vitality of its dweller, whatever his age, or precaution, and the insidious approach of a dozen forms of disease.
One of the old-time physicians draws the picture of the country and its pioneers thus, and his description is an explanation of why the early doctors of the county chose to cast their lots where they did : "However limited our knowledge is in regard to what marsh miasm is, whether gaseous, meteoric, vegeto-animal, or vegetable spores, as some claim, the fact remains patent that it requires a temperature of sixty degrees and upward, a soil rich in organic elements, and a suf- ficient amount of moisture to generate a cause that will always weaken and retard the efforts of the pioneer to pave the way for a higher civilization in a fertile country. There is no other cause that will pro- duce so many pathological deviations as this has done in times past, before the hand of improvement sapped its strength, and reduced it from a primal cause to an unimportant factor in the complication of other diseases as we see it to-day. Its effects were impartially dis- tributed ; neither age, sex or condition were spared its inflictions. The
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springtime of life, the summer of manhood, and the autumn of hoary age, were equally alike the subject of its visitations. It had no limit to its pathologieal range, from the simplest intermittent down to the deadly algid, and from the harmless remittent to that of a malignant or pernicious type, that frequently ended in sudden death. In some instances the stomach and bowels received the shoek, and produced gastro-enterie hemorrhages that threatened the life of the patient, for the time being. In others the eranial nerves received the brunt that conveyed the impression of an acute attack of meningitis. While in others again, a coma so profound was developed suggesting a fatal ease
HOME-MADE SELF-FEEDER
of apoplexy, while yet in others a gentle soporifie condition was wrought simulating a tranced state resembling death, by the apparent suspension of all functional movements. Such and many more uncom- mon deviations might be notieed as falling under the observations of those physicians who first aided in the development of this country.
"The old settler's improvement, or rather elearings, as they were called, rarely exceeded a few aeres in extent, with the primitive log eabin somewhere near the center and a log stable off to one side. It was nothing but a mere hole or opening in the forest that permitted the heat of the summer's sun to reach the earth and warm it, and the
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air enclosed within. As the latter became heated it also became buoyant throngh rarifaction, ascended upward, leaving a partial vacuum, which was filled by the cooler air of the surrounding forest in the daytime. While toward the approach of night, with the de- clining sun, evaporation was partially stayed, a thin vaporous cloud was formed which covered the entire improvement like a blanket sus- pended a few feet above the earth's surface. In most instances in which the settler was located the soil was so constantly saturated with moisture that a shallow excavation lined with a few feet of Sycamore gum furnished an ample supply of water. During the winter's cold it answered every purpose, but as warm weather approached there was an increased demand for its use which was not so satisfactory. It had lost its refrigerating qualities, and its warmth had developed a disagreeable brackish taste that no species of filtration could remove. In this condition some boiled it, and after it settled, used it, and con- sidered this made quite an improvement upon the original, and no doubt but what it was, as it destroyed all the germs and microbes that an open soil failed to retain.
"It was from such conditions that malaria gathered strength, and became the primal cause in the genesis of disease that gave to the fertile valleys of the Maumee and Wabash the unsavory reputation of the white man's necropolis."
WELLS COUNTY PIONEER ASSOCIATION
On September 10, 1879, the Wells County Pioneer Association was organized at Bluffton. At the same meeting the members arranged to visit the state fair at Indianapolis, as the managers of the exhibi- tion had promised passes to all persons over seventy years of age who had resided in the state forty years or more. N. Kellogg was elected president; Michael Karns, treasurer, and J. C. Silver, secre- tary. Under the stipulated conditions, seventeen residents of Wells County attended the state fair in 1879. The fifth old settlers' picnic and celebration had been held during the previous Fourth of July ; the first occasion of the kind had been celebrated July 4, 1859. The Pioneer Assocation of 1879 endured only a few years, when it was allowed to lapse, and there has since been no regular organization of the kind.
GENERAL PIONEER PICTURES
Before getting into the details of county organization, professional experiences and personalities, military matters and the histories of
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the corporations and the townships of Wells County, there are several pictures of pioneer times which naturally arise for presentation. That done, the preliminaries necessary to a general advance all along the line may be considered as cleared away. Hunting subjects are ever- perennial; hence, they lead this list.
THE CHASE IN WELLS COUNTY
Pioneer life naturally develops great hunters. Conspicuous among such in the early epoch of Well County were Isaac Covert, "Wils." Bulger and others. Messrs. Covert and Miller indulged in the luxury of killing she bears and robbing them of their cubs. On one occasion, in 1836, Messrs. Covert and Isaac Lewallen were trapping near Sam- uel Crum's farm in Rock Creek Township, and discovered that an otter had burrowed itself in the bank of the river. They dug it out, but it sprang into the stream. They had no gun, and Covert, a large and plucky man, fearing that he would lose the object for which he had labored, jumped in after it. A combat ensued, in which Covert came out victorious, though with several wounds. He killed the otter by choking and drowning. Lewallen stood off and participated in the conflict by "hurrahing for our side."
ISAAC COVERT
Mr. Covert trapped many wolves through the country, which he lashed into slavery, tied lin bark in their mouths, strapped them on his back and brought them to market. But the unaided efforts of all the hunters were not sufficient to extirpate the howling fraternity, and the Board of Commissioners, with an eye to wool-growing. offered, in January, 1839, a premium of $1 for every wolf scalp brought them. This encouraged the slaughtering business and made the trade lively. Covert then had plenty of help, yet the board, in March, 1840, in- creased the premium to $2. In a short time, however, they rescinded this order, as they ascertained that an old gentleman southwest of Bluffton had domesticated a lot of she-wolves and at divers times sold scalps of their young to the commissioners.
As late as the spring of 1886 a circular fox hunt was organized in the county, resulting in the slaughter of several foxes.
"WILS. " BULGER
"Wils." Bulger, the "Davy Crockett" of Indiana, the "Killbuck of the Wilderness," is noted as being one of the greatest hunters of
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his day, killing as high as sixty-four deer in one season. Of course, his anecdotes of the chase are numerous and interesting, and he has not a reputation for exaggerating. In calling a turkey, and in the imitation of the tones, etc., of many other animals, he could deceive the most practiced disciple of Nimrod. Many a laugh has he created at the expense of rival hunters. Mr. Bulger ( Wilson M.) spent the last year of his long life in his quiet home near the foot of Main Street, Bluffton. He was a great reader, though deeply and continuously careful of what he read, and was, therefore, self-refined and truly cultured. His old age was sweet and mellow, and, although he was a firm believer in Universalism when those of his creed were often
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OLD MAIL COACH LOADED
bitterly criticised, in his arguments with the equally positive Metho- dists of Bluffton, which were lively and of long duration, good old "Wils." Bulger never was known to lose his even temper.
THE WILD WOMAN
Between 1840 and 1850, in the woods east of Bluffton, there resided a woman who was held to be "wild." Although occasionally she would venture to a pioneer's cabin and beg for something to eat or wear, as a rule she obtained what she needed or wanted by system- atie thievery of neighborhood gardens and fields. While specula- tion was at its height, as to whether the woman was an escaped lunatic from some asylum, or just "queer," Abram W. Johnson and his wife
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were out walking in the woods one day, when they were assailed by an overpowering odor of decay. They traced its origin to a hollow log, in which was the eorpse of the Wild Woman of Bluffton.
PAYING POSTAGE SOME JOB
In the early times of Wells County, when postage on a letter destined for a point five hundred miles away was twelve and a half cents, and the wages for a day's work was not much more than that sum, Benjamin Starr, who had located about nine miles south of Bluffton, in the edge of Chester Township, came to town one fine morn- ing and found a letter in the postoffice coming to him when the postage upon it could be paid. He was in real trouble, for the communication was from his old home in the East and he was naturally anxious to read it; but he had no money with which to pay the postage, and others to whom he might apply with good grace were equally short. But 'Squire Hale came to the rescue. IIe had a well which had to be cleaned out and gave Brother Starr the job; which occupied the balance of the day, but enabled him to meet his postage bill.
CHAPTER XVII
THE COUNTY GOVERNMENT
FIRST STEPS IN ORGANIZING WELLS COUNTY-HOW BLUFFTON WON THE COUNTY SEAT-REPORT OF THE LOCATING COMMISSIONERS- FIRST COUNTY BOARD-ITS FIRST MEETING -MODERATE TAXES- ELECTION DISTRICTS AND TOWNSHIPS-OFFICIAL BOWEN HALE- SURVEYOR CASEBEER AND THE FIRST PUBLIC ROADS -- VARIOUS OFFICIAL APPOINTMENTS-BLUFFTON SURVEYED AND PLATTED- FIRST TREASURY REPORT-THE FIRST COURT HOUSE AND JAIL- THE SECOND ( BRICK) COURT HOUSE-PRESENT JAIL AND SHERIFF'S RESIDENCE - THE COURT HOUSE OF THE PRESENT - COUNTY INFIRMARY AND ORPHANS' ASYLUM- ROSTER OF COUNTY OFFICIALS 1837-1917-SOME OLD-TIME OFFICE HOLDERS EARLY SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS OF THE COUNTY-TENDENCY OF LATE YEARS- HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SYSTEM-THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY-UNIFORM HIGH SCHOOL COURSE-AGRICULTURE AND DOMESTIC SCIENCE INTRODUCED-MOST MODERN SCHOOL BUILD- INGS-TEACHERS' INSTITUTES-PROFESSOR ALLEN'S SKETCH OF THE COUNTY SCHOOLS-INCREASED VALUE OF SCHOOL PROPERTY IN THIRTY YEARS.
Historically, the first form of American government which had jurisdiction over the country now included in Wells County was that extended by the General Government through the Northwest Terri- tory, by the Ordinance of 1787. The first county government which embraced it was organized in 1796. In that year Wayne County was created and its civil jurisdiction extended over an empire-twenty- six counties in the present Northwestern Ohio, the southern peninsula of Michigan and Northern Indiana. How that domain was divided and subdivided within the following sixty years has already been described, and the civil historical record, as it affects Northeastern Indiana and Wells County, has been brought down to the general act of February 7, 1835, by which the Indiana Assembly, through its committee on new counties, created thirteen counties, including Wells, from the former Indian country embraced in old Wayne County.
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